"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" - Aristotle

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

In June I blogged about Madonna and Lil Wayne and what can be considered to be Pedophilia in their work in Open Your Heart to Pedophilia. That entry led to further explorations of Pedophilia in popular culture with Lolita's Candy. In Lolita's Candy I explored the theme of candy in popular culture and how it relates to Pedophilia. In the comments section of Lolita's Candy it was suggested by member electrobix that the candy theme is so commonly associated with Pedophilia because many Pedophiles use candy to lure in children.

Upon reading about the recent death of Boyzone singer Stephen Gately I discovered that he played the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in a stage production of the film.

The Child Catcher using candy to capture children.

To be honest with you I'm an American so I had no idea who Stephen was before his untimely death, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was a little before my time, so this discovery was a surprise to me; it especially surprised me by how on target his role as the Child Catcher was with what I had been exploring in the aforementioned blog entries.

If you too aren't fully aware of the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang or the character Child Catcher, here's a brief description of the villian from Wikipedia (I really need to stop quoting them).

The Childcatcher is the most loyal servant to the Baron and Baroness Bomburst of Vulgaria. Since the Baroness cannot abide the existence of children, she employs him to kidnap and imprison the country's children. He wears a black suit with a top hat, and has moderately long greasy black hair. In general appearance, he is quite pale, thin, and has a spider-like quality and grace in the way he moves. His most recognizable feature is his elongated nose, with which he is able to smell children and find where they are hiding. When searching for the children, he carries a large net and a hook to catch them. The witches in screenwriter Roald Dahl's novel, The Witches, are also able to smell out children to murder them.

He drives a horse-drawn dark buggy equipped with a cage, but he sometimes disguises the buggy as a candy-and-ice cream wagon in order to lure, and so ensnare, children. He also disguises himself as an innocent candy-salesman with colorful clothing and carries lollies and other sweets with which to tempt the children out of their hiding places. When Jeremy and Jemima Potts are hiding in the Toymaker's cellar, the Childcatcher dances through the streets harking about "free" chocolate, cherry pies, treacle tarts, ice cream and other goodies. Jeremy is entranced and runs out into the street, despite Truly warning the twins not to leave until she had returned (she was out shopping for food). Jemima followed against her better judgement, and both of the children followed the Childcatcher. The villagers shouted and called for them to come back, but the Childcatcher lured the children into his cage and took them to the castle of the Baron and Baroness. The twins were locked in the tower and awaited their deaths.

At the end of the film where the natives of Vulgaria and the Vulgarian children ambushed the Baron's birthday party, the Childcatcher was called to detain them. However, his plan failed when he realised that the children were no longer afraid of him and they trapped him in a net which they then suspended from the ceiling-like a spider.

I took it upon myself to read comments about the public's reaction to this film and most people seem to have viewed the Child Catcher as a Pedophile on a subconscious level.

In an interesting twist it appears that Marilyn Manson, who I covered in Lolita's Candy, has appropriated the Child Catcher iconography in the title and cover art for his EP Smells Like Children.

Moving right along...

Noah Cyrus; younger sister of Hanna Montana star Miley Cyrus

The picture above of Noah Cyrus has rightfully caused major controversy. In case you didn't know Noah is only 9 years old. If this was the first time this happened I would consider calling it a mistake but this is repetitive behavior from the Cyrus family. To those of you oblivious to pop culture (I don't blame you) here's a run down of just SOME of the controversy these girls have caused.

At age 15 Miley posed topless for Vanity fair magazine.

Just recently she performed on a stripper pole at the Teen Choice Awards.Even worse, here is her 9 year old sister.

More pictures of Noah Cyrus....the fuck?

As if all of this wasn't enough, let's take a look at what children's network Nickelodeon is selling to children. Click here to see the latest calendar for their show iCarly and yes this is real. So it's clear they are exploiting male sexuality and gearing it towards children now.

Clear evidence of this is the latest sex symbol Taylor Lautner from Twilight/New Moon.The kid is only 17 years old and is already being marketed as a sex symbol. The media, including the always wonderful Perez Hilton (major sarcasm), is reporting on him in a sexually explicit manner and no one is saying anything. Let's do a quick search and check out some of what Perez has to say about Taylor.

9 comments:

i swear, my eyes ran across these words just as they came into my head. Bizarro world...

I really wanted to dig deep into the psychology of pedophilia in pop. the images here immediately brought a few examples to mind; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory looks much different next to that first pic. are you familiar with the story of the Pied Piper? also, the Child Catcher (and marilyn manson) reminds me of The Penguin from Batman Returns. I believe he was kidnapping children too, right?

I'm somewhat familiar with the story of the Pied Piper. I know both R. Kelly and Michael Jackson have associated themselves with that character so that should be interesting to look into. As far as the Penguin, I've never seen Batman Returns so I can't answer that for you. If so, wow...

The story of the Pied Pier of Hamelin is pretty weird to associate youself with, especially when he is supposed to have taken all the children away as revenge for not being paid what was due to him. The version of the story I remember is that the Pied Piper and all the children disappeared inside a mountain ...I'll have to go and read up on it at Wikipedia! I've posted on another site about a recent clip I've seen from Saturday Night Live, where Lady GaGa and Madonna are fighting it out in some comedy sketch wearing the exact same boots as Noah Cyrus!! What great role models!! Keep up the good work, this stuff is so freaking me out - it's excellent!!

Sad, the way that young people are getting the world, to the hell with this world, she and he are teaching our children to have sex at the age of 12 years... fucking corrupts and everything is for money.

the Child Catcher is not a pedophile. Pedophiles have this sick love/obsession with kids, whereas the Child Catcher hates them, thinks of them as nothing more than disgusting vermin that need to be removed from society.

the Child Catcher is not a pedophile. Pedophiles have this sick love/obsession with kids, whereas the Child Catcher hates them, thinks of them as nothing more than disgusting vermin that need to be removed from society.